HackTrain 5.0

Fun isn’t something one considers when hacking the rails. But this… will put a smile on your face. - Thanos

The ultimate transport hackathon is backonce again!

This year we are proud to announce that we'll be going hacking the rails in the UK and Europe once again in partnership with some of the biggest transport operators in the world!

Join us on a journey to innovate the rail industry over 4 crazy days of hacking!

Hackers

Mentors

Prototypes

Trains

Last Year's Hackathon

Challenges For HackTrain 5.0

Customer Experience

What next generation of technology can improve the travel experience by 1000x for passengers?

Operational Efficieny

How can performance be improved through the use of data and machine learning?

Rolling Stock Enhancement

What can we do with the vast amount of data that trains are producing nowadays?

Intelligent Infrastructure

How can we build and operate our future infrastructure assets more effiecently?

and more ...

Prizes

Team Prizes:

£600 Travel Voucherto anywhere in the world

For 2 Overall Winning Teams

For 2nd Place Teams

Nintendo Switch x 4

For 3rd Place Teams

Amazon Echo x4

Individual Prizes:

Amazon Echo Spot x 2

Nintendo NES Classic Mini x2

SilverRail Bounty Challenge:

From £1000 dependant on winning idea

Who will be there?

Mentors & Speakers

This year we are not holding back. Then again, when do we ever? We've hunted down the absolute brightest and best rail experts in the world and have invited them to mentor our equally talented hackers!

Schedule

All hackers and launch attendees have chance to meet each other and network before the hackathon begins. Drinks and snacks are on us ;)

Our CEO will launch the event alongside several other senior stakeholders from the rail industry. We're bringing out the bigger hitters for this launch. You won't want to miss this

A quick overview of some of the challenges that accompanying datasets available for the hackathon! Keep your eyes and ears peeled, some of these challenges may have special prizes up for grabs!

Dinner break where food and drinks will be provided for attendees - meals will be catered for all dietary requirements.

Participants will pitch any idea they believe could solve the challenges presented. Mentors, sponsors, participants and the HackTrain team will vote for only 15 ideas to go further in the event - no pressure!

Once the best ideas are chosen, participants form teams to work on the lucky 15.

Travelling officially begins! We will be leaving the launch venue to head over to the stations at various locations in London to board our trains!

The two trains will be travelling across various cities where we will stop off at co-working spaces to hack in. Food, drinks, and travel are all provided by us ;)

We'll be hacking through the night until the early hours of the morning. There will be a small sleeping area provided for those who want to get some shut eye. Bring sleeping bags!

This will be our last trip of the weekend. We'll all be heading back to London to pitch our ideas!

Pitch time! Teams get 4 minutes to pitch their solutions and 2-minutes of Q&A. Winners will be announced after pitches are complete.

Wildcard pitches provide an opportunity to 3 teams that had a great idea but did not make it through the semi-finals. They will be given a chance to pitch their idea once more in the hope of getting into the finals

All the hacking has come down to this moment, the remaining 6 teams will pitch their ideas for the final time and the end only one group will be victorious.

A well and truly deserved drinks recpetion will be held for all participants to thank them for their effort and to celebrate the event.

Frequently Asked Questions

We welcome all developers, data scientists, designers, entrepreneurs, policy changers, rail professionals, consultants, financial analysts and economists including working professionals and university students. If you’re really interested in innovating the transport industry then we would love for you to apply too!

Go to https://hackpartners.typeform.com/to/EazzUf to fill in an application form! The form has 4 sections for us to get to know you better. We aim to get back to you within 2 weeks after your application submission!

Nothing but a laptop, clothes, toiletries and a sleeping bag for the weekend! Oh also, yourself! =D

Yes there are! For applicants traveling from inside the UK we provide up to £25 travel reimbursement, and for those traveling from outside of the UK we provide up to £50 travel reimbursement. Reimbursements are limited and are given on a first come first serve basis so the chances of you getting one are higher when you apply early.

Applications close on the 31st of October 2018. However, we interview on a first come first serve basis and spots generally are filled way before the closing date. There are so many participants that we even have a waitlist!

No! We are open to coders, designers and entrepreneurs of all levels. You don’t need a CS degree to be a coder, or a Bachelor of Arts to be a designer!

The challenges will be derived from the following themes: performance, safety, infrastructure, rolling stock & customer experience

We will provide you food from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. If you have dietary restrictions, we’ll try our best to accommodate them. We also have lots of snacks we’ll be providing throughout the hackathon weekend

On Friday night, you would be provided with hotel accommodation, but on Saturday night there will be none as the idea of a hackathon is to hack overnight for 48 hours! However, you can still rest when you need to!

The launch will be held in London, UK. The exact location will be announced closer to the time =]

Go to our blog or follow our social media for updates!!

Teams are formed on the first day. You can pitch your ideas for solutions to the challenges posed at the start of the event. You will each have a chance to share a 60-second informal pitch consisting of the problem you want to tackle, the solution you want to propose, and the team members you need to make it happen. The top ideas are chosen and the teams are formed.

No, you may not. We like to have everyone meet and mingle before picking teams! Afterall, this is a learning experience for all and we want you to make new friends

We recommend team sizes of 4-5. Remember to build a team with people with a variety of skills!

During the pitches, you will have a chance to pitch your idea for 4 minutes + 2 mins Q&A from the judges! We split the judging criteria between 4 categories (each with its own percentage weighting): Business Model, MVP/Prototype, Design and Pitch/presentation. More detail will be sent to you through email before the hackathon.

Hackathons are endurance events that challenge small teams to intensively build products in an extremely short space of time!